Yeah, right. I was one of the standard RealMurricans(tm) for years and would only consider a domestic car. I didn't realize how much time, energy, money, and effort I put into maintaining and babying those cars. Not until a friend of mine was trying to get an unused '95 Camry V6 with 180K out of his driveway before winter. I gave him $400, put air in the flat tires and drove it away. Put 40K on it until I gave it to another family member, who put another 20K on it. I got it back with 245K on it, and it still runs like the day I bought it, meaning you can't even hear it run and the trans shifts smooth as silk. I know it won't last forever, but after I gave it to my other family member, I bought a brand-new '06 Corolla. Which now has 125K on it, and all I've ever paid to do to either of the cars is brakes/tires and fluid changes.
The Camry was part of the steering recall, and the Corolla was recalled due to a failed ECU. At 5 years old with 100K on the clock, no extended warranty, they replaced the ECU for free, no questions asked, and gave me a loaner to drive for 6 days while the part was being procured (this was right after the quake last year, so that may have had something to do with the lack of parts).
Any ideas what a domestic company would have told me had my ECU failed at 100K out of warranty?
No, you're just a douche. Reunions, of any sort, be they class or long lost family members or a friend you lost touch with and didn't see for decades, are part of the human experience. This is part of the reason I don't use Facebook. Not only do I not use it because of the severe privacy implications, but also because if there is something that someone I care about thinks I should know, they can tell me when I see them. Or call me. Or text me. Or send me an email. I just don't need ONE more account to check, password to remember, privacy settings to manage. I have an iPhone, an Android, Google Voice, numerous email accounts, a home address, a home phone number. Facebook is redundant, and everyone I know acts childish on there, so I stay far, far away.
Bonus points: I'm not a boomer, born in the early 80's here.
If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go think about where I want to live instead in 5-10 years.
The only problem being that, if you follow the money, most first and second world countries are under the control of the same tyrannical forces. See the IMF, World Bank, and other related cretins. Do you really want to live in Iran or some third-world banana republic?
Unfortunately, this time the tyranny is a worldwide occupation. So you might as well just go all in and stand up on the side of freedom and liberty now, for tomorrow it will be too late.
Executive at a company that gambled their existence on the success of the Windows Phone platform tries to start an astroturfing campaign against the clearly-winning competition in favor of his "also-ran" platform. Film at 11.
No, the real reason is that in the 1970's, the world wasn't paralyzed with fear nor did they have an obsession with "safety", or the illusion thereof. There was also still a sense of freedom among the citizens, at least here in the United States. People would not have stood for the government telling them what they could or could not do in their vehicles.
Now, 35-odd years or so on, we have a public who clamors to be "taken care of" by the mother government, and believes that it is the government's responsibility to "keep them safe" from whatever, it doesn't matter what, or at what cost.
Everyone will make an excuse as to why "it just isn't the same now", and probably some loose reference to 9/11 being caused by someone driving in a car talking on a phone, but I, for one, at least know that since we have let the regulators roll slipshod over us for so long, we now beg at the government's teat to be "protected" and they happily "oblige". The tyranny we are under in this country, is, in fact, exactly what the majority deserves. And the rest of us always end up suffering when the public gets the government they deserve.
"We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed"
My God, man. Grow a pair. I'm so sick of hearing all you cowardly little girls sit and tinkle your panties over some questionable science and scare tactics from those who wish to bankrupt western society. We LET the financial problems happen, and if we LET them screw us (see, maybe you're right, but we're not screwed because of Carbon, we're screwed because of people like you who piddle yourselves at every mention of CO2 emissions) by completely deindustrializing the west, you'll be in for a whole new definition of "We are so screwed".
"Envirowhack" - person who goes along with the consensus reality because they can't think for themselves and have to feel guilty for taking a hot bath or washing their clothes.
Remember, if we just increase the enforcement budget a little more and give up just a couple more of our basic rights, next time, we'll get them all for sure.
That's an infrastructure problem for the GSM provider, not my problem. I hear a lot about how "hard" it is to set up towers.
Exactly. It's not that CDMA is better suited for the United States, it's that CDMA is better suited to the United States' mentality of maximize profits at all costs because it has no hard range limit.
But if the OP is referring to the fact that some providers decided to take sites spaced out for an 850 MHz cellular band network and replace them with PCS 1900 MHz GSM radios, then wonder why they have a million little dead zones now, well that's just bad engineering.
Here's the thing. I think this whole CarrierIQ debacle is being played up in the media for exactly the reason stated in the title, because it ISN'T logging data, texts. It really isn't sending your data back to the carrier, government, or whomever. What it does, is far beyond the understanding of the average consumer of the nightly news. So the media will trot out the experts who say, "This software does not send your data back to the carrier, it just hooks the keyboard for diagnostic purposes at a level beneath the userland of the Android operating system."
And, whoosh.
In the minds of the masses, it was harmless.
But it isn't harmless. The software certainly has the capability of monitoring/logging/reporting every keypress on the phone and sending it to whomever it's configured to send it to. No one outside the "slashdot-esque" crowd knows much about rootkits, system hooks, etc. etc., however. But now, whenever someone mentions the fact that phones are spying on you, everyone can come out and say "No, they're not. Didn't you hear? CarrierIQ was harmless. You're a tinfoil-hat nutter!" Even though they still will be monitoring everyone, either through this method, ones hidden better, at the switching center, or voluntarily (Facebook, etc.) And it'll be business as usual.
Right now, you can be pretty certain your phone isn't doing any real, wholesale spying, since to transport that amount of voice/video, or whatever type of data will kill your connection and drain your battery faster than you can say "fourth amendment" (until you connect to wi-fi, of course). The real trojan horses are the 4G networks. Especially once LTE connections are the norm, it will be trivial to log a tremendous amount of real-time "intelligence" (because that's exactly what these phones are, intelligence gathering tools) and quickly whisk it up to whomever wants to see your data without you noticing. I'm sure it'll be as simple as someone in a spook hideout pressing a button and, voila, the 4G network is providing them a real-time peek and listen into your life.
Thing is, no one really cares. Especially in areas with "auditory compliance". The bottom line is all that matters, and now that most industries have a revolving door between their regulatory agencies and their own personnel departments, it's one big profit orgy at the expense of the middle class. We're really entering an era of pure capitalism, but only for the insiders. Everyone else is run out of business buy the bought-and-paid for regulators. Crony capitalism: It's not just for Wall Street anymore.
So if you think any of these people really give one good god damn about the security of your personal information, think again. HIPAA is to your health information what the USAPATRIOT act is to terrorism. Security theatre.
I agree, it's completely fucking absurd. But, unfortunately, we can't rely on anyone but ourselves these days, let alone bought-and-paid for "experts" who work for the companies we are supposed to "trust". Heh.
So, let me get this straight. Someone who can replace the brakes on their own car is an "elite mechanicist"? I know plenty of hillbillies who can upgrade their braking system. There's nothing elite about them, they just know how to work on cars. Just like there's nothing elite about those of us who can modify our system software on our handheld computers (telephones), we just know how to work on computers.
Anyone can learn to change brakes on a car, anyone can learn how to change (software) parts on a phone. Just for some reason, most people think that the "magic box" needs "magic people" to work on it. That's why people don't try to learn how to do these things, there's this perception that it's just *so* complicated that any mere mortal cannot possibly know how it works.
Example, I got my first car in 1996. It was a 1984 Buick POS. At this time, I had no idea how cars worked. It was constantly breaking down because I drove it like I stole it. A couple friends of mine were pretty competent at mechanical repairs, so we started diagnosing and repairing our cars (which were also early 80's POS's) together, and now, 15 years later, I feel pretty confident I can complete most basic/intermediate auto repairs myself, if I needed to. Granted, being around people who knew about them helped, but they themselves were self-taught for the most part.
At the same time as I became friends with some car guys, they also became friends with me and some tech guys. Now, those guys are pretty competent at (at least the basics) of technology and how it works. My friends and I were self taught at computers. So between the (say 6) of us, I don't think there isn't a mechanical or technological thing we couldn't do, if we needed to. Nothing elite, nothing special, just regular people who want to know how the things we use every day work.
I know what everyone will say next: people have busy lives and most could care less about how a cell phone, computer, car, electricity, or the like operates. I get that, but at the same time, if they *really* care about if their phone is spying them, or their brakes are substandard, or whatever, they can either buy a new device/car, pay someone to modify the system software/brakes, or learn how to modify the system software/brakes themselves. (With Apple, you have no such option, btw.)
On the other hand, you have G+ that is not being built to hijack your information, sell you targeted items based on your 'likes and dislikes' or anything of the sort. It is truly a social network.
You do realize that the "G" in "G+" stands for Google, right?
I've yet to see any computing device--mobile, laptop, etc. "ruined" by downloading a song. The OS trashed, yes. But never seen one actually permanently disabled.
I've found that most of the people who download malware/virii on a regular basis have now quite adept at popping a Windows disk in the optical drive and "Pressing any key to boot from CD/DVD...", probably because they saw me do it so many times to the tune of $40 and some beer that they actually learned something.
Besides, reinstalling your OS (provided you can follow instructions that any monkey can figure out) isn't that hard and costs zero, and actually paying for media costs you something.
GSM systems use a rudimentary TDMA system which assigns each user a timeslot on a given frequency. The handset and base station both transmit/receive at the assigned interval to exchange the voice data. There isn't much security to speak of, since the basic encryption used in GSM was broken years ago. 3G GSM systems are probably still secure, as they don't use a TDMA based system. 3G GSM uses a Wideband-CDMA based system which provides greater security of the data being transferred at the physical interface layer.
Using a CDMA system, which many Americans and the rest of the world see as inferior technology, effectively eliminates the ability for a third party to eavesdrop on a wireless call. In a CDMA system, all data is distributed over the same frequency range, with an ever-changing pseudorandom code assigned to it, using spread spectrum technology. The ability to "guess" the code for any given call (out of I belive over a trillion unique codes) is nearly impossible.
While this doesn't mean that governments, spy agencies, etc. cannot still listen to your phone conversation, it means Joe Blackhat in his garage across the alley isn't listening to your phone conversation. If I were using a mobile phone for anything remotely private, which I sure as hell don't, I would have to forego using the global standard system in favor of one that uses a more secure air interface (CDMA or 3G GSM). If there are any non-telco geeks that want to know more, read section 5 of the whitepaper linked below, it has some good information on how this all works and how this system works to keep your conversations private, at least from two-bit hackers.
Agreed, the difficulty and raw amount of data transferred is miniscule compared to an actual telephone call or data connection. However, the data system (at least in GSM/GPRS networks) uses a voice channel to transfer the data. The voice channels are the largest chunk of the spectrum available at a given base station.
The SMS messages, however, are transferred between the handset and base station using the GSM control channel, a far more limited and mission-critical chunk of spectrum. So while we can sit and compare SMS vs. Data vs. Full-rate voice vs. Half-rate voice, it really is Apples and Oranges considering that most, if not all SMS are transferred this way. MMS, however, uses GPRS/EDGE (and I believe the data channels in CDMA as well), and might actually be a more valid comparison.
In CDMA or WCDMA (3GSM) networks, I have no idea whether or not voice/data channels are used for SMS. As a side note, I once read somewhere that it is possible to deploy SMS on GSM using the GPRS/EDGE data channels, but it has not, as of yet, been implemented.
But, unfortunately, they do exist, and will fight to the death to preserve their outdated business model. See: RIAA. Now does anyone start to see why all of these upstanding corporate citizens (MS, Sony, NAI, Warner, etc.) are banding together to spread the FUD?
Yes, you can get GPRS/EDGE on unsupported hardware. You just have to search the proper GPRS/data settings for your particular device and configure it manually. Not one foreign phone that I have ever attempted to configure has failed. Even some unsupported phones can be automatically configured over-the-air from AT&T's website.
I think the point of this exercise is that if you want to use unsupported hardware, you had better know how to use it. That's why this only affects us geeks, and the masses still need to buy their phones from the store, making this a non-issue to everyone else.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, right. I was one of the standard RealMurricans(tm) for years and would only consider a domestic car. I didn't realize how much time, energy, money, and effort I put into maintaining and babying those cars. Not until a friend of mine was trying to get an unused '95 Camry V6 with 180K out of his driveway before winter. I gave him $400, put air in the flat tires and drove it away. Put 40K on it until I gave it to another family member, who put another 20K on it. I got it back with 245K on it, and it still runs like the day I bought it, meaning you can't even hear it run and the trans shifts smooth as silk. I know it won't last forever, but after I gave it to my other family member, I bought a brand-new '06 Corolla. Which now has 125K on it, and all I've ever paid to do to either of the cars is brakes/tires and fluid changes. The Camry was part of the steering recall, and the Corolla was recalled due to a failed ECU. At 5 years old with 100K on the clock, no extended warranty, they replaced the ECU for free, no questions asked, and gave me a loaner to drive for 6 days while the part was being procured (this was right after the quake last year, so that may have had something to do with the lack of parts). Any ideas what a domestic company would have told me had my ECU failed at 100K out of warranty?
So, we've pretty much just given up on that, huh?
No, you're just a douche. Reunions, of any sort, be they class or long lost family members or a friend you lost touch with and didn't see for decades, are part of the human experience. This is part of the reason I don't use Facebook. Not only do I not use it because of the severe privacy implications, but also because if there is something that someone I care about thinks I should know, they can tell me when I see them. Or call me. Or text me. Or send me an email. I just don't need ONE more account to check, password to remember, privacy settings to manage. I have an iPhone, an Android, Google Voice, numerous email accounts, a home address, a home phone number. Facebook is redundant, and everyone I know acts childish on there, so I stay far, far away.
Bonus points: I'm not a boomer, born in the early 80's here.
If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go think about where I want to live instead in 5-10 years.
The only problem being that, if you follow the money, most first and second world countries are under the control of the same tyrannical forces. See the IMF, World Bank, and other related cretins. Do you really want to live in Iran or some third-world banana republic?
Unfortunately, this time the tyranny is a worldwide occupation. So you might as well just go all in and stand up on the side of freedom and liberty now, for tomorrow it will be too late.
Executive at a company that gambled their existence on the success of the Windows Phone platform tries to start an astroturfing campaign against the clearly-winning competition in favor of his "also-ran" platform. Film at 11.
No, the real reason is that in the 1970's, the world wasn't paralyzed with fear nor did they have an obsession with "safety", or the illusion thereof. There was also still a sense of freedom among the citizens, at least here in the United States. People would not have stood for the government telling them what they could or could not do in their vehicles.
Now, 35-odd years or so on, we have a public who clamors to be "taken care of" by the mother government, and believes that it is the government's responsibility to "keep them safe" from whatever, it doesn't matter what, or at what cost.
Everyone will make an excuse as to why "it just isn't the same now", and probably some loose reference to 9/11 being caused by someone driving in a car talking on a phone, but I, for one, at least know that since we have let the regulators roll slipshod over us for so long, we now beg at the government's teat to be "protected" and they happily "oblige". The tyranny we are under in this country, is, in fact, exactly what the majority deserves. And the rest of us always end up suffering when the public gets the government they deserve.
"We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed" "We are so screwed"
My God, man. Grow a pair. I'm so sick of hearing all you cowardly little girls sit and tinkle your panties over some questionable science and scare tactics from those who wish to bankrupt western society. We LET the financial problems happen, and if we LET them screw us (see, maybe you're right, but we're not screwed because of Carbon, we're screwed because of people like you who piddle yourselves at every mention of CO2 emissions) by completely deindustrializing the west, you'll be in for a whole new definition of "We are so screwed".
"Envirowhack" - person who goes along with the consensus reality because they can't think for themselves and have to feel guilty for taking a hot bath or washing their clothes.
With the discovery of this tunnel and the seizure of 2000 pounds of blow, the War on Drugs is clearly all but over.
In other news, after the 250 pounds of blow was submitted into evidence, a flood of cheap blow somehow made its way onto the streets.
Remember, if we just increase the enforcement budget a little more and give up just a couple more of our basic rights, next time, we'll get them all for sure.
So, he stole 1 router?
That's an infrastructure problem for the GSM provider, not my problem. I hear a lot about how "hard" it is to set up towers.
Exactly. It's not that CDMA is better suited for the United States, it's that CDMA is better suited to the United States' mentality of maximize profits at all costs because it has no hard range limit. But if the OP is referring to the fact that some providers decided to take sites spaced out for an 850 MHz cellular band network and replace them with PCS 1900 MHz GSM radios, then wonder why they have a million little dead zones now, well that's just bad engineering.
Here's the thing. I think this whole CarrierIQ debacle is being played up in the media for exactly the reason stated in the title, because it ISN'T logging data, texts. It really isn't sending your data back to the carrier, government, or whomever. What it does, is far beyond the understanding of the average consumer of the nightly news. So the media will trot out the experts who say, "This software does not send your data back to the carrier, it just hooks the keyboard for diagnostic purposes at a level beneath the userland of the Android operating system."
And, whoosh.
In the minds of the masses, it was harmless.
But it isn't harmless. The software certainly has the capability of monitoring/logging/reporting every keypress on the phone and sending it to whomever it's configured to send it to. No one outside the "slashdot-esque" crowd knows much about rootkits, system hooks, etc. etc., however. But now, whenever someone mentions the fact that phones are spying on you, everyone can come out and say "No, they're not. Didn't you hear? CarrierIQ was harmless. You're a tinfoil-hat nutter!" Even though they still will be monitoring everyone, either through this method, ones hidden better, at the switching center, or voluntarily (Facebook, etc.) And it'll be business as usual.
Right now, you can be pretty certain your phone isn't doing any real, wholesale spying, since to transport that amount of voice/video, or whatever type of data will kill your connection and drain your battery faster than you can say "fourth amendment" (until you connect to wi-fi, of course). The real trojan horses are the 4G networks. Especially once LTE connections are the norm, it will be trivial to log a tremendous amount of real-time "intelligence" (because that's exactly what these phones are, intelligence gathering tools) and quickly whisk it up to whomever wants to see your data without you noticing. I'm sure it'll be as simple as someone in a spook hideout pressing a button and, voila, the 4G network is providing them a real-time peek and listen into your life.
They're not kidding: Intelligence Everywhere!
2004 for sure and probably 2000 if you want to dig deep enough.
Thing is, no one really cares. Especially in areas with "auditory compliance". The bottom line is all that matters, and now that most industries have a revolving door between their regulatory agencies and their own personnel departments, it's one big profit orgy at the expense of the middle class. We're really entering an era of pure capitalism, but only for the insiders. Everyone else is run out of business buy the bought-and-paid for regulators. Crony capitalism: It's not just for Wall Street anymore. So if you think any of these people really give one good god damn about the security of your personal information, think again. HIPAA is to your health information what the USAPATRIOT act is to terrorism. Security theatre.
Posted by an AC. Priceless.
I agree, it's completely fucking absurd. But, unfortunately, we can't rely on anyone but ourselves these days, let alone bought-and-paid for "experts" who work for the companies we are supposed to "trust". Heh.
So, let me get this straight. Someone who can replace the brakes on their own car is an "elite mechanicist"? I know plenty of hillbillies who can upgrade their braking system. There's nothing elite about them, they just know how to work on cars. Just like there's nothing elite about those of us who can modify our system software on our handheld computers (telephones), we just know how to work on computers.
Anyone can learn to change brakes on a car, anyone can learn how to change (software) parts on a phone. Just for some reason, most people think that the "magic box" needs "magic people" to work on it. That's why people don't try to learn how to do these things, there's this perception that it's just *so* complicated that any mere mortal cannot possibly know how it works.
Example, I got my first car in 1996. It was a 1984 Buick POS. At this time, I had no idea how cars worked. It was constantly breaking down because I drove it like I stole it. A couple friends of mine were pretty competent at mechanical repairs, so we started diagnosing and repairing our cars (which were also early 80's POS's) together, and now, 15 years later, I feel pretty confident I can complete most basic/intermediate auto repairs myself, if I needed to. Granted, being around people who knew about them helped, but they themselves were self-taught for the most part.
At the same time as I became friends with some car guys, they also became friends with me and some tech guys. Now, those guys are pretty competent at (at least the basics) of technology and how it works. My friends and I were self taught at computers. So between the (say 6) of us, I don't think there isn't a mechanical or technological thing we couldn't do, if we needed to. Nothing elite, nothing special, just regular people who want to know how the things we use every day work.
I know what everyone will say next: people have busy lives and most could care less about how a cell phone, computer, car, electricity, or the like operates. I get that, but at the same time, if they *really* care about if their phone is spying them, or their brakes are substandard, or whatever, they can either buy a new device/car, pay someone to modify the system software/brakes, or learn how to modify the system software/brakes themselves. (With Apple, you have no such option, btw.)
What's so hard to understand about that?
On the other hand, you have G+ that is not being built to hijack your information, sell you targeted items based on your 'likes and dislikes' or anything of the sort. It is truly a social network.
You do realize that the "G" in "G+" stands for Google, right?
I've yet to see any computing device--mobile, laptop, etc. "ruined" by downloading a song. The OS trashed, yes. But never seen one actually permanently disabled.
I've found that most of the people who download malware/virii on a regular basis have now quite adept at popping a Windows disk in the optical drive and "Pressing any key to boot from CD/DVD...", probably because they saw me do it so many times to the tune of $40 and some beer that they actually learned something.
Besides, reinstalling your OS (provided you can follow instructions that any monkey can figure out) isn't that hard and costs zero, and actually paying for media costs you something.
GSM systems use a rudimentary TDMA system which assigns each user a timeslot on a given frequency. The handset and base station both transmit/receive at the assigned interval to exchange the voice data. There isn't much security to speak of, since the basic encryption used in GSM was broken years ago. 3G GSM systems are probably still secure, as they don't use a TDMA based system. 3G GSM uses a Wideband-CDMA based system which provides greater security of the data being transferred at the physical interface layer.
Using a CDMA system, which many Americans and the rest of the world see as inferior technology, effectively eliminates the ability for a third party to eavesdrop on a wireless call. In a CDMA system, all data is distributed over the same frequency range, with an ever-changing pseudorandom code assigned to it, using spread spectrum technology. The ability to "guess" the code for any given call (out of I belive over a trillion unique codes) is nearly impossible.
While this doesn't mean that governments, spy agencies, etc. cannot still listen to your phone conversation, it means Joe Blackhat in his garage across the alley isn't listening to your phone conversation. If I were using a mobile phone for anything remotely private, which I sure as hell don't, I would have to forego using the global standard system in favor of one that uses a more secure air interface (CDMA or 3G GSM). If there are any non-telco geeks that want to know more, read section 5 of the whitepaper linked below, it has some good information on how this all works and how this system works to keep your conversations private, at least from two-bit hackers.
http://b2b.vzw.com/assets/files/SecurityWP.pdf
Here, we have a story which is not only over 8 months old, but is also a dupe. That has to be some kind of a record.
Agreed, the difficulty and raw amount of data transferred is miniscule compared to an actual telephone call or data connection. However, the data system (at least in GSM/GPRS networks) uses a voice channel to transfer the data. The voice channels are the largest chunk of the spectrum available at a given base station.
The SMS messages, however, are transferred between the handset and base station using the GSM control channel, a far more limited and mission-critical chunk of spectrum. So while we can sit and compare SMS vs. Data vs. Full-rate voice vs. Half-rate voice, it really is Apples and Oranges considering that most, if not all SMS are transferred this way. MMS, however, uses GPRS/EDGE (and I believe the data channels in CDMA as well), and might actually be a more valid comparison.
In CDMA or WCDMA (3GSM) networks, I have no idea whether or not voice/data channels are used for SMS. As a side note, I once read somewhere that it is possible to deploy SMS on GSM using the GPRS/EDGE data channels, but it has not, as of yet, been implemented.
In an ideal world, they should not even exist.
But, unfortunately, they do exist, and will fight to the death to preserve their outdated business model. See: RIAA. Now does anyone start to see why all of these upstanding corporate citizens (MS, Sony, NAI, Warner, etc.) are banding together to spread the FUD?
Yes, you can get GPRS/EDGE on unsupported hardware. You just have to search the proper GPRS/data settings for your particular device and configure it manually. Not one foreign phone that I have ever attempted to configure has failed. Even some unsupported phones can be automatically configured over-the-air from AT&T's website.
I think the point of this exercise is that if you want to use unsupported hardware, you had better know how to use it. That's why this only affects us geeks, and the masses still need to buy their phones from the store, making this a non-issue to everyone else.